Terror and Truth in the Sky
by Nick Kenneth
Summary: Best friends and pilot colleagues Kendall and Logan fly one of the most poorly-maintained aircraft in their negligent employer's airline. What suddenly happens before their eyes during the flight will seal their fate forever... -Additional info: AU, Kogan
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note 1: I'm sorry if the first chapters will sound nerdy or geeky… I couldn't help it… ;P But I hope it still makes for good reading. Enjoy! :3**

**Author's Note 2: By the way, to make things more fun, I kinda made a photo reference blog post on my Tumblr, which you can access in the link below (just replace the dash between btrandkittens, tumblr and com with periods, coz FF keeps removing those parts :3)**

**btrandkittens-tumblr-com/post/99339042127/photo-references-for-terror-and-truth-in-the-sky-kogan**

**Terror and Truth in the Sky**

**Part 1**

Kendall wakes up at the sound of his alarm clock. 4am. He groans as he drags himself out of bed in his tank top and sweatpants and heads to the bathroom to take a shower. He then goes downstairs to fix himself a quick breakfast of coffee, buttered toast and pop tarts. As he finishes his breakfast, he heads back up to his bedroom to brush his teeth and change into his work uniform. Afterwards, he texts his best friend.

_"Hey, Logie! You ready? Pick u up at 5:30am."_

After one minute, his iPhone, on silent mode, buzzes.

_"Yup, Ken, almost. Just finished breakfast. Will be brushing and changing in a bit. Take care buddy!"_

At 5:25am, Kendall steps into his BMW. He puts his bag in the trunk and sits inside the car. He starts it up and backs out of his garage to proceed to Logan's house to fetch him for work.

At exactly 5:30am, Kendall sees Logan standing at the sidewalk in front of his house. He stops beside him, and opens the trunk so Logan can put his bag in there. Logan then opens the front passenger door and greets his best friend.

"Hey buddy! 'Sup? Ready for Honolulu?" Logan asks cheerily as he high-fives his best friend, followed by their usual hard grip handshake.

"Of course, Logie! Can't wait to relax during the layover. Let's drink 'til we're drunk as a skunk," Kendall says with a laugh.

"Oh heck yeah!" Logan says with a smile as Kendall gently steps on the accelerator pedal so that they could be on their way to work.

Kendall and Logan, long-time bestfriends since childhood, are both pilots for Hawk Air, one of the US airlines that serve Los Angeles and Honolulu. Kendall is a Captain, as evident on the epaulet on his pilot uniform's shoulders. He has four bars on them, together with his dark blue coat which has four gold lines on the cuff, clearly showing he is a captain. Logan, on the other hand, is a First Officer with three bars on his shoulder epaulet, and with the same three bars on the cuff of his pilot coat. The reason is that Logan started his aviation course a year later than Kendall, so Kendall had more seniority and hence was promoted earlier as captain. However, Logan will also be promoted as captain after 1 more year. It could mean that he and his bestfriend may no longer be flying together in the same cockpit, since they will be captains for separate flights. However, there will be flights when two captains are on the same cockpit, and Logan is still looking forward to flying with his best friend on the same cockpit during those two-captain flights.

They finally arrive at their airline's Operations Centre at around 6:00am, after their discussions of where to drink, what to drink and which beach to hang out at when they arrive at Honolulu. They are then given their usual documents, forms and briefings regarding their flight. They will be piloting one of Hawk Air's Airbus A330 aircraft, a jet plane made by the European company Airbus, which will accommodate approximately 350 passengers in their company's configuration of business class and economy class seats. Kendall and Logan have logged in tens of thousands of flight hours on the A330, so this flight will be the usual cinch for them. They then proceed to one of the building's meeting rooms to discuss their flight plans with the cabin crew, and by 6:25am, they are bussed into the LAX airport compound to be dropped off near the aircraft, which is scheduled to depart at 8:00am.

As Kendall and Logan board the aircraft and activate the other systems that have not yet been activated by the maintenance crew, they settle in their cockpit seats and check their respective maintenance manuals to see if there were repairs made or any malfunctions that they will need to adjust to. So far, both their manuals have no revisions or issue logs at all. "Looks like everything's clean," Kendall tells his co-pilot and his best friend. "Yup, c'mon dude let's do the external check. I mean, let's do the external check, captain, sir!" Logan says with a grin. "Oh stop it, Logie", his bestfriend captain says as he chuckles. And so they leave the aircraft via the jetbridge, but open a side door and go downstairs so that they can begin their external check of the A330 they would be flying for today. As they complete their walkaround, they see no problems with the engines, the wings, the flaps, the stabilizers, the tail, the landing gears and the underside of the fuselage. They also double check if the sensors that stick out of the aircraft are free from dirt and other materials that can clog them. If they fly with those sensors clogged, they run the risk of incorrect flight information which may lead to a crash. The sensors check out okay. They also see that the fuel truck, also owned by Hawk Air, is almost done with filling the aircraft with fuel for the long flight.

_Unbeknownst to the two pilots and to the rest of the pilots and flight attendants of the company, Hawk Air upper management has ordered the maintenance department to skimp on maintenance costs, due to pressure from their majority owner, George Hawk, and the rest of the shareholders who want more profits at all costs. Furthermore, they ordered the maintenance department to keep their mouths shut about the illegal procedures, and anybody who squeals on them will be dealt with severely. As a result, all maintenance logbooks have been falsified as 'all clear', and all aircraft, including Kendall and Logan's A330, are actually already in bad need of maintenance. The exterior of the aircraft, including the engines and wings, look okay, but the internal components tell a different story._

They return to the aircraft and prepare the rest of the cockpit preparation procedures. As all the necessary systems have been activated, Kendall calls the cabin crew's intercom to tell them that the aircraft is ready and they can commence boarding once the boarding call is made.

Once boarding is completed, and the LAX terminal jetbridge is detached from the Airbus, Captain Kendall Knight and First Officer Logan Mitchell complete their pre-pushback checklists. F/O Mitchell is the one reading out the checklist "challenges" or questions, and Capt. Knight is the one who looks at the mentioned switch or panel and checks if the setting complies with what their checklist requires. After completing that checklist, they radio the ground crew to begin pushback of their plane to their engine startup area. They then go through the "before-start checklist" to make sure everything is in correct setting before they start the engines. And as they complete the before-start checklist, Capt. Knight turns the crank switch to "Start" and flips the fuel pump switches (the switch that basically allows the engines to completely start up and shut down), with Engine 2's (right side) fuel pump switch being flipped on first before Engine 1's (left side). Capt. Kendall notices that he felt some sort of mild electrical ground when he flipped each switch from Off to On, but as he looked at the various indicators in front of him, everything looks normal. He then just dismisses it as static electricity from his hand. As Capt. Kendall and F/O Logan confirm that both engines are running and stabilized, they radio the ground crew to disconnect their tug from the aircraft. As the ground crew vacates the area, both Capt. Kendall and F/O Logan wave goodbye at them. The captain elects to be the one to control the aircraft during taxi, and the first officer will be the one to fly the aircraft until cruise level.

After a lengthy ground delay because of the morning rush of jets taking off and landing, Capt. Kendall and F/O Logan finally are able to position their aircraft at one of LAX's runways, runway 7L, for takeoff. They have performed the necessary fuel calculations and takeoff parameters to make sure their takeoff is safe, and if an emergency arises, they can abort the takeoff safely. When the control tower gives them the approval for takeoff, Capt. Kendall announces, "Logie, you have controls, I have communications," to which F/O Logan replies "Roger, Kindle. I have controls, you have communications." Kendall then softens his grip on his side's control joystick, while Logan grasps his own control joystick tightly, since he's the one in charge of the takeoff.

As per their company's policy, both pilots should have both their hands on the engine thrust lever during the first 100 knots speed of their takeoff run, ironically, for additional safety purposes. Kendall and Logan have no problem with that, since they're best friends and they've been doing this for years now. Capt. Kendall then puts his right hand on the black thrust levers, followed by F/O Logan's hand on top of his hand. The captain announces "takeoff", and the first officer acknowledges with "takeoff" as well, and they both move the engine thrust levers from idle to the set takeoff position.

As the jet's engines roar into life to push the aircraft along the runway, the aircraft finally begins to accelerate. When their speed indicator shows 100 knots, Capt. Kendall announces "100 knots", and F/O Logan releases his hand from Kendall's at the thrust lever. Their company policy then requires that only the captain should be controlling the engine thrust from 100 knots to takeoff speed. The captain is the one solely responsible whether to proceed with a takeoff or abort it if problems are noticed. In their case, all their display screens show no problem. The aircraft then announces through loudspeakers "V1", which meant that it is the point of no return, that the aircraft is too fast for the takeoff to be aborted; if they abort the takeoff past V1 speed, they will overshoot the runway. And after the captain hears the computer announce V1, he releases his hold on the thrust levers and puts his right hand back on his knee. Capt. Kendall then announces to F/O Logan, "Rotate!", to signal Logan that he can make the aircraft fly now. Logan pulls back on his control joystick, and the large aircraft slowly points upward and leaves the runway. Kendall continues the necessary announcements: "Positive climb rate" (the aircraft is climbing properly), to which Logan announces "Landing gear up", and Kendall responds with reaching over the landing gear control lever and lifts it up to make their jet's landing gears go up. When the landing gear indications change from red to green, Kendall announces "Landing gear up!" Their aircraft now gently continues its climb, with Logan still controlling the plane manually, and Kendall communicating with the various control centres that guarantee their safe flight. Logan then reaches out and presses a button at the middle of the glareshield (something like a car's dashboard) called AP2, which was Autopilot #2. The autopilot engages, and Logan relaxes a bit.

When they reach 10,000 feet, they unbuckle their seat belts, release their grip on their control joysticks and lift their feet off their rudder pedals. The A330 is now fully automatic as it continues with the designated target altitude, speed and route. Capt. Kendall then flips the cabin seatbelt sign to Off, which means the cabin crew can now proceed with their meal service.

A cabin crew member calls them via intercom to ask what meal would they like to have: beef or fish. Kendall then asks Logan, but Logan tells him to choose first, but Kendall wants his best friend to choose first, so they decide to play rock, paper and scissors, and whoever loses gets the fish. And so they start their silly game while the cabin crew member is listening and laughing. Logan loses, so he gets the fish. Kendall's first officer pouts a little, then Kendall offers to take the fish instead. Logan then laughs and saying he's just kidding. He's in the mood for fish anyway, the brunette says. Almost all airlines in the world require pilots to eat different meals, so that when one gets sick from the dish (such as stale fish or rotten vegetable in the food made by their caterer), the other one will not be affected, so there's only one incapacitated pilot. In Kendall and Logan's case, both their food did not smell funny. Kendall got steak, and Logan got salmon fillet as their inflight meal. They pull out the built-in desk from under the display screens and place their food tray on it. They also put their Cokes there. After one more scan of the instruments, and seeing that everything is 100% okay as their jet finally reaches their target altitude of 35,000 feet, Kendall and Logan begin eating and chatting while still occasionally glancing at the screens just to be sure.

After they finish their meals, one of the cabin crew retrieves them, and they continue monitoring their systems to see if everything is okay, and everything still seems fine. And they relax a bit as they continue to chat about more stuff, such as Kendall getting another BMW hybrid, and Logan replacing his Mercedes-Benz C-class with an S-class.

Then, suddenly, the six display screens, the backlight from the control buttons and the lights around them flicker continuously. The aircraft then shudders. When the center displays stopped flickering, Kendall and Logan both look at them. Logan announces "Engine 2 flameout!" as he sees the indicators of that engine go down to zero, which meant that Engine 2 had completely shut down. Kendall announces, "I have control!" and grips his control joystick but lets the Autopilot continue flying the plane as they figure out what's wrong with Engine 2. They can still fly with one engine anyway, but they must turn back and land at LAX. It's too risky to continue with just one engine functional. Capt. Kendall then turns the autopilot's heading control by 180 degrees to make the U-turn. F/O Logan then takes over the communications with ground control to announce that they had an engine flameout and will be heading back to LAX.

As Capt. Kendall completes the 180 turn back to LAX, the aircraft then shudders again, all their displays flicker, and when the flickering stops, both captain and first officer pale at what they see: their remaining engine, Engine 1, has also lost power.

The aircraft then becomes totally silent as both engines shut down. In the cabin, the passengers started panicking as the lights turn off and they hear the engines shutting off, leaving an eerie quiet. Back in the cockpit, the brief total blackout of all displays and controls ended when the cockpit emergency power kicked in. However, the plane has no running engines, and they are 3 hours away from Los Angeles.

"Initiate engine restart!" Capt. Kendall announces to First Officer Logan. The first officer quickly goes through the startup procedures. He flips both fuel pump switches back to Off. He places the crank switch to start, and flips Engine 2's switch. Nothing. He repeats the crank switch step and flips Engine 1's switch. Also nothing.

"Kindle, the engines aren't starting up!" F/O Logan worriedly says.

This is the first time this has happened in their entire career of aviation, a dual-engine flameout on a two-engine plane, probably a thousand miles and hours away from a nearby airport, and all around them is nothing but the Pacific Ocean.

As Capt. Kendall Knight sees the gravity of their situation, he looks wide-eyed, with his green eyes overshadowed by large black pupils showing terror, at his bestfriend and co-pilot… In his shock, he could only say one thing...

"No…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note 1: Part 2 is still nerdy, but I still hope it's tolerable enough... And for those who are actually pilots or aviation experts here, please forgive me if are incorrect descriptions… ;P But still, please enjoy! :3  
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**Author's Note 2: By the way, to make things more fun, I kinda made a photo reference blog post on my Tumblr, which you can access in the link below (just replace the dash between btrandkittens, tumblr and com with periods, coz FF keeps removing those parts :3)****  
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**btrandkittens-tumblr-com/post/99339042127/photo-references-for-terror-and-truth-in-the-sky-kogan**

**Terror and Truth in the Sky**

**Part 2**

_"No…"_

Capt. Kendall realises in horror as both engines of their aircraft had failed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and would not restart.

"Try again, Logie" Kendall orders.

"Uh… Yes, captain!" Logan nervously answers, his fear showing by calling Kendall "captain" instead of the usual "Kindle" even during serious phases of their normal flights.

"Is the APU running?" Kendall asks.

"Yes, captain. We can still attempt to restart the engines" Logan answers as he looks at the APU button on their overhead panel and sees that the APU is operational. The APU is their jet's Auxiliary Power Unit, a very small jet engine that provides electric power to certain portions of the aircraft, including the mechanism that makes the jet engines start up.

"Ok, perform restart!" Kendall calmly orders.

"Yes, captain!" Logan acknowledges.

The first officer then proceeds to twist the crank switch on the center control console between him and his captain. As the switch clicks into "Start", the he then flips the fuel pump switch of Engine 2 from its OFF position to ON. F/O Logan looks at the center displays in front of them. Again, the digital gauges that indicate engine rotation show that the engine is trying to start up. They need the gauge labeled N1 to show 25%, which would indicate that the jet engine's fan blades are rotating, and that the engine itself is taking in fuel to burn. As the N1 gauge reaches 20%, Capt. Kendall and F/O Logan see a glimmer of hope to restart even just one engine. The captain also looks back at the two screens in front of him to see if they're gliding down at a slower rate, so that they have enough altitude to recover from when one or both engines finally start. When he sees that their glide is maintained at 1,200 feet per minute (which means they'll stay airborne for the next 25 to 30 minutes without engines), he looks back at the centre displays. The N1 gauge shows 21%, Kendall starts to smile.

Suddenly, the N1 gauge of Engine 2 rapidly goes down and back to 0%.

"FUCK!" Capt. Kendall shouts.

"HOLY SHIT" F/O Logan stutters in reaction to his Captain and his frustration that Engine 2 failed to start up again.

Logan then immediately flips the fuel switch for Engine 1 and looks closely at the center display showing Engine 1's N1 gauge…

5%... 8%... 9%... 10%... 15%... 20%... 21%... 22%... 23%...

Kendall and Logan look on as they desperately wish that Engine 1 would start…

24%... 25%... 26%... 27%... 30%... 40%... 50%... And Engine 1 roars into life.

"YES!" Kendall and Logan scream as they high-five each other, lost in the elation that one engine finally restarted.

Kendall then pushes the thrust lever for Engine 1 from IDLE to the maximum thrust position called TOGA (Take-Off/Go-Around). Engine 1 obeys the order and the aircraft picks up speed and altitude as Kendall pulls back on his control joystick to make the aircraft climb to 33,000 feet, the level recommended when the aircraft encounters a single-engine failure.

In the cabin, as the passengers hear the roar of the engine on their left side, they feel a glimmer of hope as the cabin lights come back to life and they start to feel the air blowing out of the airconditioner vents. They cheer and applaud loudly, loud enough that Kendall and Logan can hear them behind the reinforced cockpit doors.

But the blonde captain and brunette first officer cannot relax yet. They still have to rush back to LAX before something worse happens again. Logan immediately radios LAX, advising them of a temporary dual-engine failure, and has recovered one engine. And to be safe, instead of declaring "PAN PAN PAN" (which is something like a "yellow alert"), Logan declares "MAYDAY" (which is the equivalent of "red alert") to Los Angeles Center, which relays the information to the LAX control tower as well.

With sweaty hands, Captain Kendall engages the autopilot by pressing AP1. AP2 had tripped and disconnected during the flickering of the lights and electrical systems of the jet. The aircraft then stabilizes at 33,000 feet and automatically chooses the ideal cruising speed.

Kendall and Logan then confirm through their checklists if the configuration of the aircraft is correct for their single-engine return to LAX. As F/O Logan declares "Checklist complete," Capt. Kendall starts to breathe easy and answers, "Thanks, Logie," to which First Officer Logan answers, "You're welcome, Kindle" with a tiny smile of relief.

However, after 15 minutes of stable flight, the aircraft starts to shudder again. Kendall and Logan can hear the remaining functional engine whining down as it shuts down again, and as indicated in the gauge displays as N1, N2 and other indicators of Engine 1 move back to zero.

"Fuck! Not again!" Logan shouts in frustration.

"Relax, Logie. We can fix this," Kendall reassures his best friend and colleague.

"Okay, Kindle. Lemme perform the restart procedures after I get the QRH" Logan says as he reaches out from behind his seat to get the Quick Reference Handbook again

"Okay, Logie. I have controls," Kendall then announces

"Roger, Kindle. You have controls," Logan acknowledges

Capt. Kendall takes over as the Autopilot 1 disconnected when the aircraft lost engine power. He then pushes a button that re-deploys the A330's RAT, or Ram Air Turbine, a small windmill or propeller beneath one of the wings. That small windmill spins and provides electric power to several vital systems that Kendall needs to maintain control of the aircraft with both engines dead. Their screens come back to life as the RAT provides power to the generators and the cockpit systems directly. They are now at 32,000 ft as the aircraft begins its slow descent without any engine power.

Logan then re-initates the startup procedures. He says aloud his steps to relay to the Captain what he is doing.

"Engine 1 and 2 fuel pumps – switched to OFF"

"APU – on"

"Startup Crank – Start"

"Engine 2 fuel pump on"

"Engine 2 N1 not responding"

"Engine 1 fuel pump on"

"Engine 1 N1 not responding too."

"Shit."

"Repeat the procedure. Continue repeating until one of the engines starts up," Kendall calmly orders, hiding the fear inside him, so as not to scare his best friend.

"Roger, Captain"

"Engine 1 and 2 fuel pumps – switched to OFF"

"APU – on"

"Startup Crank – START"

"Engine 2 fuel pump on"

"No response from Engine 2"

"Engine 1 fuel pump on"

"No response from Engine 1"

"Repeating the steps!" Logan shouts with a little fear in his voice.

"Engine 1 and 2 fuel pumps – switched to OFF"

"APU – on"

"Startup Crank – START"

"Engine 2 fuel pump on"

"Still no fucking response from Engine 2"

"Engine 1 fuel pump on"

"Still no fucking response from Engine 1"

"Repeating!"

"Engine 1 and 2 fuel pumps – switched to OFF"

"APU – shit…"

Logan watches in horror as the APU deactivated. He presses the APU start button to reactivate the APU. The APU does not respond and instead the button shows "Fault", together with a display on the screen indicating "APU FAULT." They need the APU to start the engine, but now the APU is not working.

But there is one last method they can try… The windmilling restart method.

Kendall brings the aircraft down to 28,000 feet with nose at a steeper descent angle to bring their speed from 280 knots to 300-330 knots, the speed needed for the fan blades to spin quickly enough that they can sustain ignition and operation. As they reach their needed altitude and speed, Logan repeats the startup procedure. No response from the aircraft.

"Son of a bitch!" Logan yells.

And suddenly, the cockpit displays flicker again and everything turns off. They lost all electrical power as well. Kendall and Logan try to move their flight controls, but the aircraft is not responding. They've lost electrical power to the radio system as well. This means that Los Angeles Center will no longer be able to contact them, and vice-versa, and even worse, they probably couldn't be seen on the radar anymore. Kendall and Logan stare at each other in the silent cockpit as they realize their fate…

"No…" they say at the same time…

_To be continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note 1: Thanks for your patience! I think I caught a cold with fever probably brought in by my mom's clinic (it's attached to the house and I pass by its door when I go downstairs, or maybe my bro (who's a medical intern) brought it home from the hospital ER… XD Anyways, I'm starting to feel better at the moment after waking up (12:40pm here lol)… Let's make Part 3 a little more interesting by focusing more on the Kogan friendship interaction too, instead of purely Kogan professional interaction ;P Please enjoy! :)**

**Author's Note 2: By the way, to make things more fun, I kinda made a photo reference blog post on my Tumblr, which you can access in the link below (just replace the dash between btrandkittens, tumblr and com with periods, coz FF keeps removing those parts :3)**

**btrandkittens-tumblr-com/post/99339042127/photo-references-for-terror-and-truth-in-the-sky-kogan**

**TERROR AND TRUTH IN THE SKY**

**Part 3**

_"No…" they say at the same time…_

Kendall and Logan look at each other in pure horror as they realise that their fate onboard the silent A330 has been sealed…

There was no way for them to restart the engines. And they could not control the aircraft.

There was no way for them to control the aircraft as the A330 silently glides and begins its slow descent into the Pacific Ocean, with probably nobody knowing where exactly they are at the moment, save for the last location they were spotted at before they disappeared from radar.

As Kendall and Logan hold back their tears, they both clench their fists and decide to figure out a way to save the aircraft. They need to save the lives of the passengers and cabin crew. It is their job. It is their responsibility.

Kendall tries once again to control the aircraft as he yanks his control joystick around and step on the rudder pedals to feel any reaction from the A330.

Nothing.

Logan also does the same with his control joystick and rudder pedals, and also tries to restart the APU, turn the engine ignition crank switch to Start, and once again reset the fuel pumps to OFF and then ON.

Nothing.

"Wait, let's check the avionics bay! There could be some popped circuit breakers down there. That's why all our systems shut down!" Logan says, with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Both of them are hoping that resetting fuses at the avionics bay below the cockpit will reboot the aircraft's systems and save the plane.

Logan then leaves his seat, grabs a flashlight attached at the wall behind his seat, and opens the avionics bay hatch on the floor behind them, and goes downstairs via the ladder built into the space. He hurriedly scans the avionics bay, a small room which looks both like an IT server room on one side and with rows upon rows of round-shaped circuit breakers or fuses on the other side. The first officer then goes through all the circuit breakers and sees that nothing has been popped at all. As a desperate move, he pops out and pushes in each and every circuit breaker, in the hopes that one of them will restore the electricity supply above. Logan then shouts at the access hole to his captain. "Captain! Is something happening there?" "Nothing! She's still dead," Capt. Kendall answers back, referring to the plane.

The first officer then scans the computer boxes and trays on the other side to see if he could restart any switches or reattach any cables. Despite flipping switches and tightening plugs, the rows of boxes of computers are all dead, with all their LED indicators off. Logan's shoulders drop in surrender as he slowly comes back up the cockpit. He puts the access hatch door back into place. He then asks Kendall's permission to leave the cockpit to talk to a cabin crew member about their predicament. Kendall says yes and tells Logan to make the passengers prepare for a water landing, or a ditching. Logan then instructs the cabin crew to announce their status via a megaphone in one of the storage cabinets, and prepare for the inevitable landing at sea.

Logan then returns to the cockpit door, and after he closes and locks the door, he slowly drags himself to his co-pilot seat, with the look of defeat in his eyes.

Kendall looks at his best friend, and reaches out with his right hand to tap his best friend's shoulder.

"Hey, Logie. It's okay. You did your best. We did our best. But it looks like this is it…" Kendall says with a forced smile on his face, trying to hide his feeling of defeat and surrender to their eventual doom.

Logan also forces a smile at his best friend, in a desperate attempt to make Kendall feel better about their fate.

"Thanks, Kindle… Yeah, looks like this is it…" Logan says with a sigh as they both look forward through the windscreen at the horizon, where the light blue and clouds of the sky kiss the dark blue of the Pacific Ocean below, and the mid-day sun shining happily and brightly above, oblivious of the terror and despair that prevails inside the doomed A330.

Kendall then shifts his position towards Logan, grabs his hand and grips it tightly like the way they do when they congratulate each other back in their high school and college days.

"You know what, Logie, this isn't so bad. At least we've lived almost all our lives together as awesome best friends. And now we're meeting our end, together. It's been an awesome life with a great friend like you… Ever since we started kindergarten together, life has been awesome having a best friend like you. You helped me a lot, especially during high school and college. You've protected me from bullies and taught me stuff that I did not quickly understood in school. You were there in my times of sadness, in my times of celebration, in my times of fun. You were always there for me. Thank you for everything, Logie." Kendall says with tears trickling down his face and his grip on Logan's hand tightening further.

Logan starts to sob as he hears the comforting words and final thank you's of his best friend.

"Me too, Kindle. It's been an awesome life. Thank you for being my best friend all throughout my life. You know what, I've been very shy when we were still in kindergarten. I thought nobody would make friends with me. But you approached me and said hi to me, and it felt good. I had a friend now. And all throughout these years, you've also helped me a lot. I owe it to you for helping me realise that my life-long ambition is in aviation… To fly like a bird in the sky… To be a pilot." Logan says between sobs, to which Kendall dawns a realization.

"Oh, Logie… Shit… I'm so sorry… If I didn't convince you to become a pilot, then you wouldn't have been here. You would've been safe and alive for a very long time. I am sorry, Logie. It's my fault that your life will be cut short," Kendall says as he begins sobbing loudly.

"Hey, Kindle! NO! Stop that! NO NO NO! Stop crying! It's not your fault! Being a pilot has been my dream already since we were in grade school. I just decided to forget about it, thinking I'm not good enough. But eventually, you made me realise that I can do it. And I did. We've been flying for several years now, and from two bars on my rank epaulet, I am now a three-barred First Officer, and will be… or… would've been a Captain next year… but, still, it's been an honour working with my best friend. I owe it to you that I am this happy, Kindle. Thank you for being my best friend. And you know what, it's kinda cool that, yeah, we've lived our lives almost always together, and now we're facing the end of our lives together too…" Logan says as happiness about their friendship briefly interrupt his sobs of sadness.

Kendall looks at Logan as more tears continue to flow from his green eyes.

"Thank you, Logie. It's been an honour for me too. And, uhm, I know this is awkward… Actually, this is probably a very bad timing… But I need to be really honest with you…" Kendall says as his sobbing face tries to stop the tears and becomes serious. Logan looks at him in a worried way.

"What is it, Kindle?" Logan worriedly asks.

Kendall then pulls Logans hand near his own face, and kisses it gently.

"Logan… I… I… I love you…" Kendall finally says.

Logan looks at his best friend, shocked at what he just hear him say.

"Whu… Wh… Wu… Wha… What?" Logan asks, with confusion and panic in his eyes.

"Yes, Logan… I love you, Logie… I've actually fallen in love with you for a very long time now. I'm trying to hide it because I am scared that you are straight and you won't love me back, and our friendship would be destroyed. But now that we've got nothing to lose, I had to tell you the truth… I love you, Logan…" Kendall tearily says as he kisses Logan's hand once again, with some of his tears falling onto Logan's hand.

"Kindle…" Logan was only able to utter his best friend's name as he then stares quietly at Kendall.

Kendall's sad face became sadder as he realises that his bestfriend, the love of his life, Hortense Logan Mitchell, can't love him back.

Logan then suddenly sobs as he flips their joined hands together, pulls it quickly towards him and kisses Kendall's hand.

"I LOVE YOU TOO, KINDLE!" Logan finally shouts as he sobs.

Back in the cabin, despite the eerie silence of the cabin, pierced occasionally by sobs of the frightened passengers and crew, nobody hears what the pilots are expressing for one another, as the silence throughout the passenger cabin has become a deafening one, as fear and feeling of certain doom envelop each and every passenger and cabin crew member.

Kendall's sobs slow down as he looks directly into Logan's gleaming brown eyes. "You… love me, Logan?"

"YES KINDLE! I'm sorry if I didn't admit it to you sooner. When we were still in middle school, it's like I started to have a crush on you, and when we were in high school, I was convinced that I am in love with you. I am just scared to tell you because I thought you might not like me," Logan says.

Kendall and Logan stare at each other for a moment, realising how stupid they are to have been hiding their feelings for each other, when in fact they were actually truly in love with each other. The signs have been there all along, both of them realised. They didn't have any girl crushes. They didn't have girlfriends. They didn't hang out with girls. They didn't even sleep with girls. It was always them hanging out. Either Logan or Kendall sometimes playfully cuddling alongside the other guy as they sit on the couch, either in Logan's house or Kendall's house, while watching a movie. Kendall or Logan would cook a big mean breakfast, lunch or dinner whenever the other boy comes by to visit. They enjoy each other's company that they didn't need anyone else in their lives. They were always happy whenever they are in each other's company. They felt complete. They were actually in love and were discreetly showing affection towards each other.

And Kendall and Logan lean on the center control console as they move themselves close to each other. With their remaining free hands, the two hold the back of each other's heads as they slowly join each other's lips, their very first kiss.

The boys finally feel the sensation they've been longing for. Their first kiss of true love for the man that they love. They pull each other's heads closer to each other as their first kiss turns from a gentle kiss into a more passionate one. Kendall is the first to stick his tongue out and explore Logan's mouth, to which Logan willingly obliges. And as Kendall pulls his tongue back in, it was Logan's turn to explore Kendall's willing mouth with his own tongue. They continue to kiss fervently, releasing the tension of hiding their true feelings for each other after all these years.

_They feel much more complete this time._

_They feel content._

_They feel happy._

_They feel loved._

And as the reality of what's happening around them settles back into their minds, they slowly part their lips and lean back on their seats, but Kendall's right hand and Logan's left hand, still locked in a gentle grip.

Kendall then lets out a cruel chuckle… "Well, fate is a cruel mistress… We finally declare our love for each other and had our first kiss, and now we have our final moments together, and our first kiss is actually our last one too… All in the same day… All within the same hour…"

"You said it, Kindle," Logan says with a bitter smile. "Fate is a cruel mistress… And as they say, 'til death do us part.' But you know what, fuck that! I love you, Kindle. We'll see each other in heaven and we'll continue being united there. Just wait and hold on. We'll see each other there soon. I love you, Kindle…"

"I love you too, Logie."

And they embrace once again and indulge into a second passionate kiss of love.

After a minute of the second kiss, they return back to leaning on their seats. They look at the remaining flight instruments that are powered separately by a backup battery… 11,220ft… Probably around 5 to 10 more minutes before the descending disabled aircraft hits the ocean.

"I love you, Logan"

"I love you, Kendall"

They then turn back to looking through the cockpit windscreen, with the captain's right hand and the first officer's left hand still clasped together and resting on the black engine thrust levers. Their eyes, glistening with mixed tears of love, joy, fear and doom, continue to gaze at the horizon and towards their inevitable fate…

_To be continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note 1: So okay I'll start first with a freaky paranormal experience just a few hours ago… I walked towards my treadmill at 11:00pm to fold it up and unplug it. As I was walking, I saw a bottle of my bro's machine oil on the right side of the pathway. After I folded up and unplugged the treadmill, I turned around to go back to my room, and I saw the fucking bottle suddenly IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PATHWAY! Maybe it's that fucking spirit again that the paranormal investigators saw back in 2008 that kept following me… But anyway, enough of my own experience LOL. Here's the next chapter to Terror and Truth in the Sky. I hope you'll enjoy it! :3  
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**Author's Note 2: By the way, to make things more fun, I kinda made a photo reference blog post on my Tumblr, which you can access in the link below (just replace the dash between btrandkittens, tumblr and com with periods, coz FF keeps removing those parts :3)****  
><strong>

**btrandkittens-tumblr-com/post/99339042127/photo-references-for-terror-and-truth-in-the-sky-kogan**

**TERROR AND TRUTH IN THE SKY**

**Part 4**

As the aircraft continues its descent towards the ocean, Captain Kendall and First Officer Logan release their clasped hands and proceed with their pre-ditching procedures. Logan gets the QRH (Quick Reference Handbook by Airbus) and flips through to the checklists for ditching. The brunette first officer then proceeds to call out challenges to the blonde captain, who responds if the checklist item has been complied with or not. However, since majority of the checklist entries involve parts of the cockpit controls that are now useless, Kendall has to declare them as "Negative" since even if he pushes the buttons and spins the dials, it's no use. They then arrive at the portions of the checklist about preparing the passengers, the cabin crew and the flight crew (themselves) by wearing their life vests and instructing the passengers to brace when the aircraft is close to impact with the water.

Logan wipes his face with his handkerchief to remove the tear stains, then wears his Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses (so that the cabin crew will not see his red eyes), stands up and proceeds to the cabin area to talk to their senior purser to proceed with the life vest procedure and the brace instruction. He tells them that when the aircraft is around 3,000 feet above the water, he will come out and yell "Brace!" at the crew and cross his arms as visual signal for the crew in the middle and the rear of the cabin, and the cabin crew at the front will continue shouting "Brace!" and repeat the arm signal so that the passengers will hear them and see them, and the cabin crew at the back can relay the brace announcement as well. Logan then thanks the purser and returns to the cockpit.

Kendall and Logan decide not to let the cockpit doors remain open as the aircraft begins ditching to avoid any panic-stricken passenger from barging in and potentially delaying Logan's brace signal or any other safety threat, and also so that they can have their final moments as a couple in private in case they do not make it when the plane finally crashes into the water. But they hope that maybe the aircraft will impact the water in such a way that it can still float intact, or at least break into large pieces that will make sure that a lot of the passengers and crew will survive. But with controls totally inoperable, the aircraft can also do a steep dive towards the ocean and disintegrate, killing everybody on board. It is up to Mistress Fate to decide how their aircraft will fall into the ocean.

Kendall and Logan look at each other again, hold their hands, and engage in a third passionate kiss. They might as well enjoy their remaining minutes on earth as a couple this way, they thought. As they pull away from their kiss and clasp, they both look at the battery-operated altimeter, the analogue instrument that tells them how high they are right now…

8,100 feet… A few more minutes to go before impact.

Kendall's face then becomes crimson with rage at their predicament.

"There is something fucking wrong with this aircraft, and those motherfucking maintenance bastards didn't see it?" Kendall asks angrily. Logan pales as he looks at his boyfriend with shock, and realises that Kendall is right.

But they aren't aware that the maintenance employees are forced to disregard safety and correct maintenance procedures at the prodding of their cold-hearted maintenance bosses and upper management.

"And now you, Logie my boyfriend, and I, and the rest of the passengers and crew will die because of their motherfucking mistakes?" Kendall continues, his crimson face contrasting with the green iris of his eyes and the wide black pupils.

"Kindle, relax! Calm down. We might be able to survive this so please calm down!" Logan tries to reassure his boyfriend captain.

Kendall tries to calm down for his boyfriend first officer, but the rage in him is just too great.

"Those fucking assholes! If we survive this, I swear I'm gonna rip their heads off with my own hands!" Kendall angrily resumes his tirade as he clenches his right hand into a tight fist and slams it onto the centre control console.

"Those motherfucking assholes! I swear I'm gonna kill those motherfucking sons of bitches!" Kendall yells as he slams his fist again onto the centre control console.

"I swear to god… I'M GOING TO MOTHERFUCKING KILL THEM!" and Kendall slams his fist again onto the centre console.

As his fist hits the centre console for the third time, they hear a loud electrical sparking sound…

And suddenly, the entire cockpit lights up. All their displays suddenly flicker back to life.

"What the…? What the fuck did I just do?" Kendall says as he stares wide-eyed at the cockpit displays.

Kendall doesn't know that Hawk Air's maintenance crew performed improper shortcuts in repairing the damaged wirings of the fuel pump switches. Instead of replacing the entire assembly containing the switches (similar to a desktop PC's DVD-RW drive being removed), they just tampered with the wirings and made sloppy rewiring to cut costs.

On their fateful flight, some of the electrical tape fell off from the wires and the exposed wires started touching other wires that were also sloppily "fixed" by the maintenance crew. The resulting short circuit was so severe when a high-voltage wire beneath the centre console caused a high-voltage surge, and it first knocked out the APU switches (APU start and APU ON), then the power switches of all the controls in the cockpit, and eventually the flight controls and all the display screens.

But when Kendall pounded so hard on the control console that the high-voltage wire touching the other exposed low-voltage wiring finally separated, and causing the circuit breakers of the high-voltage wiring in the avionics bay below to pop out, effectively disabling the high-voltage wires and preventing another possible major shutdown of all controls.

Because of Kendall's pounding, he inadvertently fixed the problem: A set of wires that kept shorting out and disabling the entire aircraft.

"Kendall, I think you fixed it!" Logan says as his eyes show a new glimmer of hope.

"I think you're right, Logie!" Kendall begins to smile as well as he steps on the rudder and moves his control stick sideways, and the aircraft is finally responding even with the engines still dead.

"Hurry! Let's start the engines!" Kendall excitedly orders.

"Yes, Kindle!" Logan excitedly acknowledges as he grabs the QRH again.

Logan then announces his steps to his captain as they try once again to restart their engines.

"APU start button – ON"

"Waiting…"

"APU ON button – ON"

"Waiting…"

"ECAM (one of the center display screens) shows APU available"

"APU is running!"

"Fuel pump switches 1 and 2 – OFF"

"Ignition crank switch – START"

"Waiting…"

"Starting Engine 2 – Fuel pump 2 – ON position"

Logan stops his announcement as they both look at the ECAM, and see that Engine 2's N1 reading is going up once again…

"5%... 10%... 15%... 20%... 21%... 22%... 30%... 50%!"

"ENGINE 2 STARTED!" Logan excitedly screams.

And he continues…

"Starting Engine 1 – Fuel pump 1 – ON position"

And they look at the ECAM again.

"5%... 10%... 15%... 20%... 30%... 50%!"

"ENGINE 1 STARTED AS WELL!" Logan screams anew.

"OH MY GOD WE DID IT LOGIE! I have control!" Kendall screams as well in joy.

"Roger, Kindle! You have control! I have communication!" Logan happily acknowledges.

Kendall then quickly pulls his joystick back and pushes the thrust levers forward to max. The aircraft obeys by climbing up and the engines roaring. They have averted disaster.

Logan then quickly radios Los Angeles Centre to update them on what happened and requested for an emergency heavy landing in LAX before something bad happens again. A heavy landing is when the aircraft lands with excessive weight: in this case, because they still have the remaining fuel for the 2/3 of the LA-Honolulu flight. But they need the aircraft down on the ground ASAP rather than circling to dump fuel over the Pacific and risk another shutdown.

LA Centre acknowledges and begins vectoring them (instructing them what heading, altitude and speed to set) for an emergency approach into Los Angeles International Airport.

As Kendall stabilises the aircraft at 15,000 feet, reduces their thrust to the normal engine power setting and engages Autopilot #1, he then enters the instructions given by LA Centre on their onboard computers. Kendall presses the buttons carefully to avoid starting another short circuit when something else touches and causes another high-voltage surge, but he has nothing to worry anymore since the high-voltage wirings (which were actually for some of the secondary radars of the aircraft) have already been disabled by the popped circuit breakers downstairs. The aircraft then automatically tracks the route and they will be beginning the approach to LAX in 30 minutes.

As the aircraft fully stabilises, Kendall finally breathes a sigh of relief and looks at his co-pilot/boyfriend. They then approach each other, with hands off the centre control panel this time, still paranoid about making the plane shut down again, and engage in their fourth passionate kiss. They then quickly pull away so that Kendall can make the announcement of their good news via the intercom. As Capt. Kendall finishes his announcements, he hears a new set of wild cheering from the passengers behind the cockpit. Even though the first reassurance failed them when the aircraft suddenly shut down for the second time, the passengers and cabin crew are still ecstatic, because they were desperate for any good news from the pilots. Just a few minutes ago, they were preparing to ditch in an aircraft with no power or control at all, and now they are almost safe and will be making an emergency landing at LAX.

Kendall and Logan look again at each other and continue their kiss… They still have around 30 minutes and they use 5 minutes of the time to kiss as they celebrate their change of luck.

Kendall and Logan then proceed with the approach checklist procedures. They set the flaps to the landing settings, monitor the automatic speed and altitude settings of the jet, prepare the speedbrakes (parts of the wing that help slow the aircraft upon landing), set their automatic braking to MAX setting and lower the landing gear.

As they continue with the final approach, the phase of the approach that means they will be landing soon, Kendall and Logan begin to tense up, anticipating that the aircraft could betray them at this very delicate moment. If the aircraft shuts down at this exact timing, around less than 3,000 feet above the ground, they will crash in a huge fireball, since they still have a lot of fuel inside the wings and in the central fuel tank in the plane's belly.

"Logie, let's do a fully automatic landing. I don't want to risk a malfunction if we disconnect the autopilot and I hand-fly the plane to the runway," Kendall says.

"Roger, Kindle. It's fine with me," Logan answers.

"And one more thing, Logie"

"Yeah?"

"I love you, Logie…"

"I love you too, Kindle…"

As they continue with their approach on runway 7L, the same runway they took off from hours ago, the aircraft's computer announces "two thousand five hundred", indicating that they are 2,500 feet above the ground. Then the computer continues with the altitude report, while Kendall and Logan closely monitoring the systems. The computer must perform the landing correctly at the first attempt. If not, Kendall will have to manually override and force the aircraft to land hard on the runway. They don't want to perform a go-around and risk another shutdown. They're this close to being finally safe on the ground, Kendall thinks.

As the computer announces 100 (feet), Kendall and Logan brace for any possible problem.

50…

40…

30…

20…

Retard! Retard! Retard!

"Retard!" is the computer's instruction to the pilots to pull back the thrust levers from the normal flying position to IDLE. Kendall concentrates hard as he ignores the way the computer pronounces "retard"… Instead of the quick "retard" pronunciation which means to reduce, the computer announces it as "RE-tard", like the insult. During normal flight, Kendall sometimes chuckles because it felt like the planes are calling them retards during landing. But in this case, Kendall is gripped with tension, preparing for anything bad that could happen. Fate has been testing them for a long time already, and he won't be caught unprepared this time.

Upon hearing the "retard" computer voice call, Kendall quickly pulls back on the thrust levers to their IDLE position.

10…

5…

The aircraft then shudders as the main landing gears touch down, followed by the nose gear.

Kendall then flicks two switches on the thrust levers, enabling him to pull it back further to engage the aircraft's thrust reversers, which cause the force of the jet engines to shift from backwards to forwards, helping the aircraft decelerate more rapidly.

The thrust reversers engage without any problem, together with the autobrakes and the speedbrakes.

Logan announces the status of the aircraft. "Reversers green!" indicating that the reversers have activated properly. "Decel!" indicating that he is feeling the deceleration.

Despite the tension in their bodies, their eyes are showing signs of joy that they are finally on the ground.

As the aircraft decelerates from its slightly high speed of 150knots, another problem starts up. The aircraft is too heavy for a usual landing where much of the fuel has already been burned, making a jet lighter. And since Hawk Air's maintenance personnel are skimping on costs, the landing gears are actually severely weakened even with regular loads. In their case right now, the load is simply too heavy, and one of the main landing gear collapses and detaches.

In the cockpit, Kendall and Logan feel the strong shuddering of the aircraft, followed by a sudden drop to the right. Logan then looks at the ECAM

"Landing gear indications for right main landing gear are all zero. I think the right landing gear collapsed!"

"Shit!" Kendall mutters.

As he tries to make the plane stay straight and in the centre of the runway using the nosewheel, they feel as if the cockpit dropped and begins scraping on the runway. The nose gear collapsed as well.

Without steering, and with the nose gear and right main landing gear collapsed, the aircraft veers to the right.

Capt. Kendall tries to stabilize the aircraft by making the right engine shift from reverse thrust to max thrust forward. With the left engine still in reverse thrust, there is hope that he could make the aircraft swerve back on the runway. However, the engine does not respond, and Logan announces that the ECAM shows that the right engine is shutting down again. Unbeknownst to them, then the right landing gear and nose gear collapsed, the right engine impacted the runway so hard that it detached from the wing. As the engine detached, sparks ignited some of the fuel in the right wing. Kendall and Logan can only watch and brace in their seats as the aircraft veers off the runway at around 80 knots and continues dragging itself on the dirt and grass part of the runway.

As the aircraft departs the runway, the A330 shakes violently and knocks both pilots out of consciousness as the aircraft finally comes to a full stop on a grassy part of the runway.

_To be continued..._


	5. Final Chapter and Epilogue

**Author's Note 1: Kendall and Logan have gone this far only to be in danger again of losing their lives as the aircraft begins to be consumed by fire. Will this be the end of them, or will there be another miracle as Fate tests them again with her mysterious and cruel ways?… Let's find out on the Final Chapter of TERROR AND TRUTH IN THE SKY… Wow it sounded like a TV drama announcement… LOL… But seriously, I hope you'll enjoy this! :3  
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**Author's Note 2: By the way, to make things more fun, I kinda made a photo reference blog post on my Tumblr, which you can access in the link below (just replace the dash between btrandkittens, tumblr and com with periods, coz FF keeps removing those parts :3)****  
><strong>

**btrandkittens-tumblr-com/post/99339042127/photo-references-for-terror-and-truth-in-the-sky-kogan**

**TERROR AND TRUTH IN THE SKY**

**Final Chapter**** (and Epilogue)**

**_"Wake up, Kendall Knight!" a mysterious voice screams at Kendall…_**

Kendall jolts back to consciousness as he tries to figure out what's going on. As he looks at the grass and dirt strewn all over the cockpit windows, and the tilted position of the cockpit, Kendall finally remembers that they have performed an emergency landing, and that two out of three of their landing gears collapsed, sending them veering off the runway and into the grassy ground near it.

The captain then looks to his co-pilot and sees that the brunette is still unconscious and slumped forward. Kendall unbuckles his seatbelt and shakes Logan's shoulder.

"Logie… Logie… Logie? LOGIE! Wake up!" Kendall shouts at his boyfriend.

Logan jolts, and lifts his head as he opens his eyes. Logan is also finally awake.

"Wha… What happened?" Logan asked while in a daze.

"I think we made it!" Kendall says. "I think an angel helped us by telling me to wake up… I was seeing only white all around me, then a booming voice came which told me to wake up… Good thing I woke up just in time… And now we need to evacuate!"

"Agreed, Kindle," Logan acknowledges as he fully wakes up.

As Logan grabs the fallen QRH on the floor between his feet, Kendall proceeds to shut down all systems as part of his instincts and SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). He quickly shuts down the switches for both Engines 1 and 2. They need to be shut down or else, one or more evacuating passengers might get sucked into them and be killed if the engines were still running. He also turns off the Seat Belt On sign, the APU system, and all flight-related electrical systems. Kendall also pushes the three fire extinguisher buttons for the two engines and the APU engine, as a precaution, to avoid more fires from breaking out in the aircraft. Now that it is safe for evacuation, Kendall grabs his intercom microphone and shouts into it so that everybody can evacuate. "Cabin crew, begin evacuation, IMMEDIATELY!"

Kendall then jumps out of his seat, unlocks and opens the cockpit door, and repeats his order of evacuation in front of the passenger cabin areas of the Business and Economy classes, just to be sure. As he continues screaming "Evacuate!" cabin crew members rush towards all doors and open them using the emergency method. The emergency opening method will enable the escape slides to deploy so that the passengers can slide safety down to the ground and run away from the aircraft. The cabin crew members then order the passengers to evacuate down the slides and run away from the jet.

Kendall then returns to his seat to proceed with their full shutdown procedures before the two of them leave the aircraft as well. Before Logan starts the QRH checklist for emergency shutdown and evacuation, he looks at the right side of the cockpit window and sees flames coming out from the right wing.

"Kindle, there's a fire on the right wing! But I think we can still complete the shutdown and evacuation checklist!" Logan says

"Okay, no problem with me. Let's proceed," Kendall acknowledges

Logan and Kendall exchange checklist challenges and answers.

"Engines?"

"THROTTLE IDLE AND OFF"

"Fuel pumps?"

"OFF"

"Ignition Crank?"

"OFF"

"APU?"

"OFF"

"Fire extinguisher bottles?"

"DISCHARGED"

"Emergency path lights?"

"ON"

"Generators?"

"OFF"

"Batteries?"

"CENTRAL – ON, THE REST – OFF"

"ECAM Evacuation door status?"

"ALL OPEN – ALL SLIDES DEPLOYED!"

"Hydraulics?"

"OFF"

"Avionics main switch?"

_*click*_ "OFF!"

"Cockpit shutdown complete, Captain!"

"Thanks, F.O.!"

"Now let's check if everybody's out of the plane and then we jump out as well," Kendall says

"Yup, agreed" Logan nods.

The two then hear the wails of the fire truck sirens as the LAX fire department reaches the aircraft and begin spraying the right wing with fire extinguishing foam to stop the raging fires on the right wing from spreading further.

Capt. Kendall and F/O Logan then rush outside the cockpit and starts scanning the seats for passengers that are unconscious or unable to get out of their seats. Kendall takes the right aisle, and Logan takes the left aisle as they comb each and every row of seats.

"Business Class evacuated!" Logan announces.

"Double-checked!" Kendall shouts back.

As they go further aft of the jet, they also open the lavatories to see if nobody is in there. So far, nobody's left behind.

As they continue through the economy class, Logan sees a man slumped on his seat. He hurriedly approaches him and nudges his shoulders to wake him up. "Sir? Sir? Hey, buddy! We need to get off this plane now!" The man still doesn't respond and so Logan reaches down to unbuckle his seatbelt and pulls the man away from the window seat. With all his might, Logan lifts the 6'0" stocky male passenger onto his shoulders as he makes his way to the nearest door. He then positions the man on top of the inflated escape slide, when the man finally wakes up, looks at Logan and asks, "Hey… Did we make it?" Logan smiles at him and says, "Yes we did, sir, yes we did…" And he pushes the man down the slide and into the arms of the cabin crew and rescue personnel at the bottom of the slide to take him to a nearby ambulance.

Further down the aisle of the economy class section, Kendall hears an old frail voice trying to shout "Help me! Help me" Kendall is then able to find where the sound is coming from and sees an old woman having difficulty unbuckling her seatbelt. "Help me, sir!" the old woman begs at the green-eyed blonde captain. "Of course, Ma'am. I'll help you," Kendall says with a reassuring smile as he kneels beside the old woman to unfasten her seatbelt that partially became jammed with the pressure against it when the old woman was slightly thrown about during the crash landing. The seatbelt buckle finally unfastens, and Kendall decides to lift the old woman up to avoid her from having further injuries. He then gently places her on top of a slide on the nearby door behind the woman's row, and signal to the crew below to catch her. The old woman was saying "Thank you" to the captain as he pushes her down to start her slide down to the ground and into the hands of the waiting rescue crew.

Kendall and Logan continue their inspection of the cabin and see that there's a woman with her baby, with her seatbelt stuck. The two approach her to help her. "Sirs! Please take only my baby instead! I want her to live!" the woman tearfully says. "No, Ma'am, we'll make sure both of you survive this," Kendall and Logan assures the distraught mother. Logan carries the baby in his arms as he steps back for Kendall to unfasten the mother's seatbelt. It was also jammed, but with Kendall's adrenaline running through his veins, he easily removes the jammed buckle and frees the woman. He assists the mother into the nearest door on the side away from the fire and lets her down on the evacuation slide.

"No more passengers, Kindle!" Logan announces, still holding the mother's baby.

"Okay then, let's get out of here! You go first 'coz you have the baby!" Kendall announces with a victorious smile on his face.

"Okay, Kindle!" Logan answers as he sits on top of the slide and proceeds to slide down the evacuation slide, while carefully holding and protecting the baby. The cabin crew and rescue crew immediately grab hold of both of them and the rescue crew takes the baby from Logan's arms and gives it to the mother as they are both taken away for first aid treatment.

Kendall then looks towards the front of the aircraft and confirms that there are no more passengers inside the cabin, and he jumps down the evacuation slide as well.

As he reaches the bottom of the slide, he is helped in standing up by his boyfriend Logan, and they embrace briefly before they run towards the area away from the plane where the survivors are gathered. They reach the area and they look at the runway… They could see the right engine of the plane on the runway, together with the right main landing gear and nose gear, and pieces of metal scattered on the runway asphalt. Kendall and Logan look with wide eyes at the amazing fortunate turn of events that they had. Their plane could've gone out entirely in flames with the damage they have incurred. But no, Fate has been merciful to them.

After Captain Kendall and First Officer Logan coordinate with the cabin crew in accounting for all the passengers and crew, they are happy that everybody is accounted for. Everybody is safe. Everybody is alive. And almost everybody is uninjured, except for some who had some minor cuts, minor bruises and mildly sprained ankles. Despite the odds that have been thrown to them by Fate, Kendall and Logan were able to save everybody from doom.

As the passengers see the two handsome pilots who saved them from certain death, they surround the two and clap their hands, cheer and scream about how thankful they are to their heroes.

Kendall and Logan then look at each other, and amidst the applause and cheers, they begin to return to the topic that they've been wanting to discuss again as soon as they finished their responsibilities as pilots.

"Kindle, do you still love me after all these?" Logan asks.

"Of course, Logie! I love you so much, my Hortense Logan Mitchell" Kendall answers with the sweetest smile ever.

"Oh, of course you had to say my complete name huh?" Logan playfully scowls as he grabs Kendall's black neck tie and pulls the tall blonde pilot towards him.

"Well, Logie, do you still love me after all that has happened today?" Kendall asks in return.

"Of course, I love you Kendall Donald Knight!" Logan says with a sly smile as he continues pulling Kendall nearer to him, in the middle of all the passengers who hail them as their heroes… correction, as their ridiculously handsome heroes.

And Kendall and Logan embrace each other and lock themselves in a kiss. As they continue kissing and embracing, the crowds of rescued passengers around them applauded and cheered louder than ever before. It was an awesome sight for them that these two good-looking heroes have saved their lives from certain death, and furthermore because Captain Kendall Donald Knight and First Officer Hortense Logan Mitchell have turned from colleagues into something more… colleagues AND boyfriends…

The experience has totally sealed their fate forever: as a couple.

**EPILOGUE**

_Investigation by the NTSB and FAA revealed that the A330 used in the flight suffered from multiple clogged fuel lines and was worsened by contamination of the aircraft fuel by dirt and water in the Hawk Air refueling tank. The engines died initially due to clogged lines, but were able to restart when power was restored as the debris clogging the lines got dislodged. The NTSB and FAA also found that the engines and hydraulic systems of the aircraft have already deteriorated badly, and the cockpit electrical wirings have been tampered with to save costs instead of sending the aircraft to Airbus itself or a separate maintenance contractor for expensive but correct maintenance. Captain Kendall Knight and First Officer Logan Mitchell were lucky that the hydraulic system did not totally break down, or else they would've not been able to stabilize the plane even when they restarted their engines. Furthermore, the NTSB and FAA found that all black boxes (the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder) have been intentionally deactivated by the maintenance crew to avoid incriminating evidence in the event of an accident. In a twist of fate, this was also a good thing to Kendall and Logan, since no device had recorded what they were saying to each other during that moment. Twisted minds in the legal system could've used it against them as evidence of 'negligence of duties' (due to personal conversation) despite the heroism that they did. Investigations also found evidence of rampant falsified maintenance documents and bribery of several corrupt government officials. All aircraft of Hawk Air were also found totally unfit to fly, and all the flights of Hawk Air were actually close to disaster each time they flew…_

_Furthermore, Captain Kendall Knight and First Officer Logan Mitchell were commended and were given multiple awards for their heroism._

_11 months after the incident, justice has been swiftly served for the passengers and crew of the fateful Hawk Air flight. Owner George Hawk, together with several investors, maintenance officers and the corrupt government officials involved, were found guilty of multiple counts of negligence, falsification of documents and attempted manslaughter, and have been sentenced to life imprisonment with no chances of parole. Passengers and crew of the involved flight cheer as they hear the verdict either inside the courtroom or on their TVs. The passengers and crew were also given 1 million US dollars each in damages, and Hawk Air has been suspended and shut down by the FAA for their negligent practices and for endangering thousands of innocent lives._

One month after the verdict was handed out, Kendall drives his second BMW Hybrid into his driveway. When he resigned from Hawk Air, Gustavo Rocque, owner of competitor airline Rocque Airways, invited Kendall to work for his airline. Logan was also invited to be part of the airline. And so, Kendall and Logan's pilot careers continued with Rocque Airways. Gustavo grew fond of the couple, because of both their heroism in saving the flight from total doom, and for being a good example of a perfect same-sex couple to their colleagues. Gustavo always made sure that the new Captain and the First Officer boyfriends were always on the same flight as often as possible as they began their careers at their new employer.

As Kendall gets out of his car, he hears a honk from a distance. He sees Logan driving his brand-new Mercedes-Benz S-class onto the same driveway. Kendall greets his brunette colleague and boyfriend with a smile. Logan moved in with Kendall so they could be together more often. As Logan steps out of the car, he runs towards Kendall and they embrace and kiss. Kendall puts his arms over Logan's shoulder, and Logan also puts his arms around Kendall's shoulders, and continue their sweet, warm and romantic kiss. Kendall's blue coat rubs against Logan's own blue coat, with the dark blue of their uniforms contrasted by four bands on both of their cuffs that indicate their rank - Logan is now also a Captain. However, Gustavo still made sure that the two captains/boyfriends are on the same flight as often as possible, by assigning either Logan or Kendall as a relief captain, especially when they fly to long international routes, such as London, Tokyo, Moscow and Johannesburg. There were also plenty of times when both the four-bar captains pilot the aircraft together instead of the other one being a relief pilot. Kendall and Logan both really love their jobs as pilots more now, since they are living out the dream of their lives of being airline captains, and flying together as a couple.

"Hey, Kindle babe!" Logan says with a smile. "I missed you when I had to be on a separate flight."

"Me too, Logie Bear," Kendall answers with an equally sweet smile. "I'm glad to know you're back, and now we can have dinner together again and sleep together in our bedroom. Luckily, Gustavo told me we'll be flying together for the next six months"

"That's great!" Logan beams, as he hugs his boyfriend again and they engage into another passionate kiss.

"C'mon, let's make dinner," Kendall says as he puts one arm on the shoulder of his fellow captain.

"What are we havin' tonight?" Logan asks.

"I'm in the mood for chicken cacciatore," Kendall answers.

"Sounds good! But not as delicious as you," Logan says with a grin as he gently grabs his boyfriend's face to kiss him once again.

"And I want you to control me with your 'joystick'" Logan playfully says as he brings one hand and touches Kendall's crotch.

"Oh Logie, my horny captain!" Kendall says with an excited giggle. "Let's do it after dinner, and I'll make sure I'll do 'maximum thrust' on you"

They both laugh at the horrible pilot puns they were making and continue walking towards the door.

And as they unlock and open the door, they lean on the door frame to hug and kiss each other once again, and before they close the door of their house, they smile at each other…

"Happy 1st anniversary, Logie!"

"Happy 1st anniversary too, Kindle!"

And with Captain Kendall's green eyes starting to brim with tears, and Captain Logan's chocolate eyes already shedding tears, they join their lips together, and as they separate them, they smile once again ever so sweetly at each other…

"I love you, Kindle…"

"I love you too, Logie…"

_**-THE END-**_


End file.
